Welcome to the Squadra di Vecchi Tori Blog

We are a group of ordinary bike riders who live in or around the suburb of Malvern, Melbourne, Australia and ride under the name ‘Squadra di Vecchi Tori’ (Team of Old Bulls). Why the name? Because Molteni and Gewiss were already taken and a few of our riders are involved in the beef industry. The rest of us like being associated with signs of virility.

In March 2010, 16 of our crew each rode 527ks in 24 hours during the annual Murray to Moyne cycling event held in Victoria. We raised over $60,000 for 2 charities close to the hearts of 2 of our riders – Learning for Life and The Unicorn Foundation. Links below.

You can also find us at www.twitter.com/m2m500.

This blog will document some of our rides, contain tips, commentary, banter and a distraction for all.

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Its a word that neatly sums up a lot of things that we love about cycling – whether you watch it in the faces of the pros climbing up a grand tour col, dish it out to your competitors in a race or experience it on a hard training ride.

Suffering.

– that’s what I’m going through on my first few races back on the track at Tuesday night Brunswick Club track racing at DISC.

My second night back in C grade last night was as ignominious as my first race back a fortnight ago. The night developed like this:

Race 1 – 10 lap scratch race – a new rider on a look carbon superbike with rear disc and front carbon 5 spoke (which in C grade is the equivalent of using the Concorde to fly to Tasmania for a day trip) broke early with about 4 laps left to go – as is my natural inclination, with brain in neutral and adrenalin kicking into overdrive, I jumped from 3rd wheel and tried unsuccessfully for 3 laps out in the wind to close a 5 bike length gap, only to get overtaken on the final lap by most of the remaining group. My lungs literally felt like they were burning a hole in my chest and nearly everything else hurt – quads, glutes, arms – lactic overload. Fellow C Grader Roman summed it up succinctly in his french accent after the race – “You spent too moche time in ze wind”
Race 2 – 30 lap points race – sprint one at lap 20 I had ‘nuthin’ and was happy to watch the antics around me – sprint two I had a crack, made the small break of sprinters to narrowly miss out on the points by coming 4th, final sprint – finished with the bunch.
Race 3 – 30 lap motorpace – managed to survive the 27 lap wind-up behind the bike riding a bigger 96 inch gear to the 55km/hr final speed and then blew on the last lap as everyone wound up for the final sprint.